Customer Reviews

The Ivanhoe Gambit (Time Wars, 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first of Simon Hawke's "Time Wars" 12 books about a crack team from the "Temporal Intelligence Agency".

Kicks off a funny and well written series about a group of operatives who have to travel through time to prevent other time travellers causing damage to history.

Sometimes their opponents are rogue individual time terrorists: sometimes they come up against operatives from rival versions of history.

All 12 books in this series pay humorous homage to a great work of literature or set of historical events, or both. Most of these books go back to the time and events of a classic novel, in this case obviously, "Ivanhoe" by Sir Walter Scott, and retell the events of that novel, usually with a humorous slant.

The books are best read in the correct sequence, as follows (I have put the name of the literary work and/or historical events associated with each book in brackets afterwards)

1) The Ivanhoe Gambit (Ivanhoe)
2) The Timekeeper Conspiracy (The Three Musketeers)
3) The Pimpernel Plot (French Revolution & terror/Scarlet Pimpernel)
4) The Zenda Vendetta (The Prisoner of Zenda)
5) The Nautilus Sanction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
6) The Kyber Connection (works of Rudyard Kipling/early life of Churchill)
7) The Argonaut Affair (Jason and the Argonauts)
8) The Dracula Caper (Sherlock Holmes meets Bram Stoker's Count Dracula)
9) The Lilliput Legion (Gulliver's travels)
10) The Hellfire Rebellion (American War of Independence/Hellfire Club)
11) The Cleopatra Crisis (Caesar and Cleopatra)
12) The Six-gun solution (Gunfight at the OK Corral.)

Not terribly serious but very good fun: I can recommend this series, and if you want to read it, start with this one.

I have had the pleasure of reading this entire series of books, and truly enjoyed them all. What I enjoy the most about the books is the blending of history and scifi in such a seamless storyline, or the blending of two different stories into one storyline. The reserch and skill that this requires is wonderful. I would recommend these books to anyone. Hawke fans should also check out his Wizard series as well. Titles to look for are The Wizard of Whitechaple or The Wizard of Sunset Strip. These stories combine the Pendragon legend of King Arthur and Merlin set in the future. Merlin brings a new source of power to the world MAGIC. Try them, they are very entertaining.

The Ivanhoe Gambit is an enjoyable, fast-paced adventure series based on the premise that governments, to avoid unplesantness in the present, choose to wage war in the past (which, having 'already happened' is as sure to a safe thing as they can get). Whoops. Turns out they're wrong, and the series unfolds as a team of commandos is called forth to deal with temporal paradoxes and time-hopping terrorists.

Hawke throws some curveballs at the reader, but his love of history and the research he has done provide an engaging 'what if' for the rich fabric of time.

Not recommended for younger children. Contains some strong language.

(While Hawke concluded the series with #12: The Six-Gun Solution, if he were to pick up the series with a future novel, perhaps bringing the team out of retirement ... I'd grab it in a hot second.)

If you can wade through and dicipher all the typos, this is a very enjoyable book.

I am extremely pleased to see the Time Wars Series return to print. I had "borrowed" my brother's copies many years ago and have sought for my own books with no real results. Until now... The typographical errors are a bit distracting, but the supurb writing and great story make for excellent reading. I highly encourage anyone with a love for history to pick up this series.

Last week I was hunting around in the crawlspace and came across my "box of keepers" - books that I had read and didn't want to part with. As soon as I saw The Ivanhoe Gambit, I pulled it and the next three out, and read them intermittently over the past week and 4th of July Holiday. My opinion? Well, when I was 15 years old, they were definitely 5 star material, but with a few more years on me, I'd have to downgrade it a notch. Even so, it's a guilty pleasure. They're wonderfully readable books, but have a few too many inconsistencies, and rely too much on "willing suspension of disbelief" to be more than a good paperback novel. HOWEVER, I'm sure that when Mr. Hawke wrote 'em, that's just what he intended. The dialogue flies off the page, and the pacing is mighty brisk. Lucas, Finn and Andre - as well as Forrester, Dr. Darkness and the various secondary characters are all distinct personalities, and there's enough intrigue, fun and quasi-historical detail to keep your attention. However, when you're done reading them, you feel like you just ate a box full of ding-dongs - a bit guilty, a little woozy, and kind of unsatisfied. The other "ding-dong" effect also holds - you have a craving for more. Now if I can only find where I put the Nautilus Sanction and that "Dracula" book, not to mention the Golden Fleece story...

The Pulpless edition of this book is so riddled with typos that is all but unreadable. The book is spoiled because, it would seem, Pulpless decided to save money on proof-readers and just pass it through a spellchecker instead. This is not a small complaint. Simon Hawke should be made aware of this. A good book can be ruined this way. We want to read the book, get lost in the story, not be constantly yanked back to reality by horrible mistakes in printing, like using the word "ham" for "his." These mistakes are all through the book and get worse towards the end.

Zero stars for Pulpless.com

Simon Hawke's debut novel in his short-lived TimeWars series is top-notch entertainment from the first page to the last. What authors like Tolkien did for fantasy, Simon Hawke did for sci-fi time travel. If you've never read this series, well do yourself a favor and find them. Well worth the effort and money.

Classic stuff!

I was very surprised by this book. I had never heard of the "Time Wars" series and bought it based on the recommendations I read on Amazon. I was not disappointed and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Yes, the text is rife with typos, but still I found it to be a great read and a lotta fun. If you're interested in fantasy, sci-fi, history, historical legend, and action all rolled into a fascinating (and original) time-travel story then you'll like this book. I deduct 1 star for all the typos though... they gotta put out a proofed edition.

The book starts out like some far fetched story about some futuristc time-line keepers who sign up for kicks jumping all over the past. But befor you know it, you can"t put it down. I think the writers of the movie "TIMECOP" based alot of their movie off of this book, but I think the book was alot more interesting. I highly recomend this book!